Massacre evidence removed, says UN

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-14  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THE UN has confirmed a mass grave in northern Afghanistan was disturbed, raising the possibility that evidence supporting allegations of a massacre seven years ago had been removed.

The Dasht-e-Leili grave site holds as many as 2,000 bodies of Taliban prisoners who died after surrendering during one of the regime's last stands in November 2001.

The US-based McClatchy Newspapers group first reported the grave site tampering on Thursday.

"We can confirm that the site at Dasht-e-Leili has been disturbed," said Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the UN mission in Afghanistan, in response to the report. He declined to say how or when the site had changed, saying that details would be available in an upcoming report.

Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights, which discovered the Dasht-e-Leili site in 2002 and has performed autopsies on some of the bodies, said its researchers found two large pits at the site, both about 30 meters by 15 meters, in July that appeared to have been dug this year.

"These are real holes appearing to have been professionally dug and signs of heavy machinery," said the group's deputy director, Susannah Sirkin.

Witnesses have claimed that forces with the US-allied Northern Alliance placed the prisoners in sealed cargo containers over the two-day voyage to Sheberghan Prison, suffocating them and then burying them en masse using bulldozers to move the bodies, according to a State Department report.

Physicians for Human Rights has called for an investigation into Dasht-e-Leili and protection of the area.